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Coutya starts World Cup year with gold

Double world champion Dimitri Coutya took Wheelchair Fencing World Cup gold in the first event of the 2018 calendar.

Competing in Eger, Hungary, the Category B fencer won foil bronze on Friday before going on to top the podium in Sunday’s epee.

There was also a medal for Paralympic silver medallist Piers Gilliver in the Category A epee on Saturday, making it a successful start to the year for the Brits.

Coutya, still just 20, won both foil and epee gold at last year’s World Championships and was unbeatable again on Sunday as he fought to epee victory.

The Brit won all six of his pool matches and, as such, received a bye in the first round of the elimination phase – where he faced France’s Yohan Peter.

Coutya won that contest 15-5, before dispatching another Frenchman – Yannick Ifebe – 15-13 to reach the semi-finals.

Istvan Tarjanyi was next to be defeated, the Hungarian going down 15-6 in the final four to leave Coutya facing off against Italy’s Alessio Sarri in the final – a match he won 15-10.

That gold added to Coutya’s bronze in the foil, won by qualifying fifth from the pool phase before defeating Marco Cima and Jacek Gaworski in the knock-out rounds.

But his run came to an end in the semi-finals as Russia’s Albert Kamalov won the narrowest of encounters 15-14 – leaving Coutya with bronze.

Gilliver picked up the other British medal at the weekend – his bronze coming on Saturday after a perfect pool stage.

A bye in the first round was followed by a 15-3 win over Poland’s Rafal Bogdan Treter and an equally comfortable 15-4 triumph over Italy’s Edoardo Giordan.

A 15-10 quarter-final win over Italy’s Matteo Betti set up a semi-final against Russia’s Artur Yusupov, with the Brit matching the performance of Coutya with an agonising 14-15 defeat to leave him with bronze.

Elsewhere in Hungary, Oliver Lam Watson qualified in 12th from the pool phase of the Category A foil, with fellow Brit Joshua Waddell eliminated.

Lam Watson then falling in the round of 32 as he went down 15-11 to South Korea’s Cho Yeong Rae.

In the women’s events Gemma Collis-McCann progressed in second and 11th from the Category A epee and foil, respectively.

The epee saw Collis-McCann make her way to the quarter-finals, where she was narrowly beaten 15-13 by home fencer Zsuzsanna Krajnyak.

And the foil ended the same way, with a run to the quarter-finals halted in the last eight by Russia’s Alena Evdokimova – the Brit going down 15-5.